Tonight the Bearcats traveled to Houston, Texas to take on the Houston Cougars in their Senior Night matchup. The Bearcats were looking to finish the season on consecutive wins heading into the AAC Conference Tournament. Tonight’s starting lineup was Caitlyn Wilson, Ilmar’I Thomas, Milan Schimmel, Arame Niang and Jillian Hayes. Houston entered tonight’s contest 15-5 (12-4 AAC) as they were looking to secure the No. 3 seed heading into the AAC Conference Tournament.
The Bearcats came out very quick early on as they went up a quick 5-0 behind a Caitlyn Wilson three and Niang layup within the first minute in a half. Houston knew they’d have to find some momentum quick as the Bearcats were pushing the tempo early in the first quarter. They were pushing the tempo here in the first quarter as they got to a hot start in the first five minutes before they went on a 4:34 scoring drought to end the first quarter. During this 4:34 second scoring drought the Bearcats sophomore guard Caitlyn Wilson picked up her 2nd foul late in the first quarter which led to the Bearcats making some early substitutions to avoid foul trouble. The Bearcats were getting everyone involved early as four different players scored which was led by senior forward Ilmar’I Thomas with five points, while Jadyn Scott followed not far behind with four points.
The Bearcats came out to start the second quarter and got out of that scoring drought very quickly when Thomas made a beautiful spin move to blow by her defender to get an easy layup. The Bearcats were up as much as 5 in the second quarter before Houston started to find some momentum and started to capitalize off the Bearcats turnovers as the Cougars went three straight possessions with scores after starting very slow. The away team found some momentum after Houston tied the game at 20 as they sparked a 7-0 run that started with a Milan Schimmel three, that followed by back to back layups by Rhine Burton and Ilmar’I Thomas. This gave the Bearcats a 27-20 lead which was their biggest lead of the first half. This run started a big run as the team shot 6-of-7 from the field to end the first half. The key player the first half was senior Ilmar’i Thomas as she took over the second quarter where she shot 4-of-5 from the field with eight points to give her 13 first half points on 5-of-9 shooting. The Bearcats were giving the Cougars some trouble early on in the first half as they shot 52% from the field in the first half compared to Houston’s 32%. They also had 11 assists on 12 made shots which means they were doing a tremendous job sharing the ball and getting everyone involved as eight different Bearcats scored in the first half. Ilmari Thomas lead the first half in scoring with 13 points.
The third quarter started with a Schimmel basket for the Bearcats which followed by a Wilson three. This pushed their lead to 36-30 before the Cougars started getting some momentum after Wilson picked up her 4th foul with 6:23 remaining in the third quarter. The Bearcats were going to have to play some crucial minutes late without one of their best shooting threats after Wilson picked up that foul early in the third. That didn’t stop the Bearcats though as Thomas continued to give Houston problems as she did a phenomenal job finding her teammates when Houston collapsed on her in the paint. The Bearcats continued to step on the gas as they pushed their lead to 9 when they lead 44-35 after Thomas hit a big three. The Cougars found some momentum behind some Bearcats turnovers mixed with stops the Cougars cut the deficit to 2 when they went on a 10-1 run late in the third quarter. The Bearcats knew this would come down to the wire and knew they had to keep getting points heading down the stretch. The momentum was heavily favoring Houston heading into the fourth quarter as they outscored the Bearcats 19-14 to tie this game at 45 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Cougars continued to bring the momentum in the fourth quarter early as they hit back to back three’s by Eryka Sydney and Leilla Blair to push the Cougars to a 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter. Before a Wilson three the Cougars were on a 18-3 run to propel the Cougars lead, which was shortly erased after the Bearcats got on a quick run of their own to trail 53-52 with 6 minutes remaining. The Bearcats were playing on the edge in the fourth as three key players all had four fouls down the stretch and those three ended up being the ones to take over in the fourth quarter as Jillian Hayes, Ilmar’i Thomas and Caitlyn Wilson were all in big foul trouble, but stayed poised down the stretch as they combined for all 20 of the Bearcats fourth quarter points to seal the victory. The Bearcats locked in and got the job done after a hot start by the Cougars early in the fourth and pulled away late in the game behind Thomas’ 10 forth quarter points, as well as Wilson’s six. The Bearcats outscored Houston 20-12 in the 4th to overcome the late push and get a big victory on the road. The Bearcats held the Cougars scoreless the final three minutes of the game. In that three minute time frame the cougars shot 0-of-7 from the field as the Bearcats were getting stops and creating turnovers.
Overall they knew they’d have to pull an upset on the road to gain some more momentum heading into the conference tournament. The key player of the night was senior forward Ilmar’i Thomas. Thomas finished with 30 points on 10-of-18 shooting as well as three rebounds and six assists. The star forward should’ve locked up her case for AAC Player of the Year after her last two performances. In her last two games including tonight Thomas has scored 81 points after her record setting performance last week versus ECU. Thomas was giving Houston all kinds of trouble and not just in the scoring aspect, every time Houston tried to double or triple team Thomas she would just kick it out and find an open teammate as she recorded a game high six assists. This led to eight different Bearcats scoring in tonight’s game. Thomas won’t just beat you inside she will beat you in every other aspect as she impacts the game in every way possible with how great of a player she is. The Bearcats also had big nights from Caitlyn Wilson as she scored 12 points. Milan Schimmel lead the game in rebounds as the guard had an impressive 11 rebounds.
The Bearcats got some strong momentum heading into the conference tournament after three big wins in the last week. The Bearcats were predicted to face Wichita State as the 7 seed before tonight’s big win so it can all change as games are still unfolding. The Bearcats will look to make a big run and try to get back to the AAC Championship Game to cap off Ilmar’I Thomas outstanding career as a Bearcat.
